Last Soccer Game

Today was Damon's last soccer game and of course we did not have the entire team there...yet again. The two teams played for about 40 minutes against each other and then it was time for the parents to hit the field against all of the kids. It was comical to see each parent try to be as bad as possible. When the kids would actually get the ball near our goal we would kick it half way down the field. Every once in awhile we would let the kids score.

After the parents against kids game, it was time to hand out the trophies. Our team went first and they were sooo excited. I got some adorable pictures of them!!! (To be posted later)

Damon had a big fan base: G-ma, G-pa, GG-ma, and his dad. Damon ended up going with his dad for the rest of the week to spend Fourth of July.

Swim Time!

We were invited to my friend Kat's house to swim. Couldn't have been more perfect. Damon and I were very hot after a long game. We ate at our spot, IHOP, and headed over to Kat's to change and swim.

We walk to the pool, put our sun screen on, and jumped in. About 10 minutes in to swimming the lifeguard blew his whistle and yelled "ADULT SWIM". I looked at Damon, Damon looked at me and the next thing I knew he got out of the pool. I was shocked because we've never been to a pool with a lifeguard nor have we been to a pool where adults could swim without kids. Poor thing. He was just getting started when he had to stop. :)

I got in and swam around for a bit while Damon sat on the side with his feet dipping in the water. Finally after 15 minutes which seemed much longer, for all I heard was Damon yelling: "mom can I come back in yet?" "Where did the lifeguard go?" "When is he going to blow the whistle again?", the lifeguard came back and it was kids swim. Damon did excellent...of course.

We stayed out for about two hours then rushed back home to go to a house warming party...which we didn't not have enough time to make it to.

Went home and relaxed a little bit before his date night with grandma. I think they went riding around and to dinner...or something like that.

2 Goals for Damon!

This morning Damon and I jumped up and headed to soccer practice. There is usually not much to write about when it comes to soccer but this time there was...

Damon, my son, scored two, yes two soccer goals today. I was the only coach on the field today so I unfortunately did not get to see the goal he kicked all the way from our goal. Let me set the visual. Damon was playing goalie, the ball came to him and he just kicked it. I saw him kick it and I saw it go in the other teams goal but I was so busy "coaching" I just assumed that one of the other kids kicked it in the goal. I didn't realize the only connection that ball had before it went into the goal was from my son's foot.

The next goal he made he actually stole the ball from the other team and dribbled it all the way to their goal and kicked it in. He was so proud of himself and so was I.

We had a nice cheering crowd behind us. Of course Grandma and Grandpa who attend almost every game and this time the special guests were Aunt Erin and Briana! Yay!

Some Birkdale Fun

Today after school my cousin and I decided to take our boys out to eat and then to play in the fountains. We took them to eat at the delicious Eez Sushi Restaurant. The boys were so cute eating with their chopsticks...no I didn't get pictures...but they ate all of their food. Damon even got brave and decided to eat some of my sushi. In fact, he took one roll and put the entire thing in his mouth! It took several minutes for him to actually finish it. In the end, he really enjoyed it...I was kind of shocked.

After dinner we walked over to the fountains. Now this is water that shoots out of the ground at all different heights. Kids from all over get in their bathing suits and just go crazy. The nice thing is, during the summer they have live bands playing a variety of music so the parents can enjoy themselves as well.

You have to be careful when running around the fountain because inevitably two children will collide. My son happened to be one of them...twice. First he accidentally ran into a toddler who was walking along. He didn't so much run right into her as he wasn't looking and tripped her. She started to cry and then he started to cry out of embarrassment. The next incident was up against a hefty boy that knocked Damon completely on his bottom. Damon looked at me while laying on the ground and just as he was about to let those tears flow I told him to "shake it off" and he got up and kept going.

Time went by so fast the next thing we knew it was 9:45 and completely dark. Time to go home...I was exhausted.

Isle Of Palms

Today my entire family and I decided to take a quick day trip to the beach. I told them about Isle of Palms which is a beach my cousin and I visited the other week and completely fell in love with.

We left around 7:30 that morning and drove about 3.5 hours to arrive at the beach a little after 11:00. Damon did excellent during the trip there. He sat in the third row of my grandmothers SUV with my mom so they were able to entertain themselves. We of course had to make a couple of stops and surprisingly enough not for Damon. At one of the gas stations my Dad took a picture of Damon. He dressed himself in this getup...he had his baseball gloves on too but those didn't make it in the picture.

We arrived at the beach and Damon was ecstatic! It's been about 2 years since he has been to a beach so this was a special trip. My family piled out of the car, grabbed all of our beach gear and headed for the ocean. The water was not cold at all. It felt kind of like bath water so it was easy for all of us to run in and just start swimming. After being in the ocean for about 20 minutes I decided to rent a boogie board for all of us to catch some waves with. We all took turns showing Damon how it worked until it was his turn...

Now this next video you are about to see might be a little scary but I wanted to share how tough Damon is...

So he fell under the water for a second but what you didn't get to see is me hauling butt and grabbing him out of the water. He was okay, really mad when he first came up from the water but didn't give up. He let us put him on the board a few more times until he was not interested in going under water anymore.

This was not one of the times Damon did not fall off his board but I was running right behind him to make extra certain.

Damon was not interested in playing in the sand which is a little strange seeing as most kids are; all he wanted to do was swim and run in the water. He would lay on the beach, flopping from his stomach to his back, while the waves crashed over his body. We would all take turns taking Damon out into the ocean as we would tire pretty quickly...Damon was non stop.

"Unc", Damon, and me. Tyler did such a great job playing with Damon and I know we were all happy that he joined us for the trip. Damon loves being with his "Unc" and I know the beach trip wouldn't have been the same without him.

Damon and G-maw giving the peace sign and thumbs up in the ocean.

Damon was trying to ride G-paw like a whale...or was it a shark??

And of course we couldn't end our beach trip without sharing a kiss in the ocean.

We started packing up our stuff around 3:00, loaded it up into the car, and did a little souvenir shopping before we hit the road to Charleston. We were desperately looking for a place to eat whole crabs but didn't have any such luck so we ate at some restaurant in Charleston that was equally satisfying. I got the Carolina Platter which came with crab legs, a crab cake, and shrimp. Damon ate all of the crab legs while I did all of the work to get the meat for him and ate most of the shrimp. Before getting back in the car, Damon and I ran across the street to get some ice cream for the ride home.

We were all exhausted from the beach and I was sure it was going to be a quite ride home because Damon would be falling asleep...wrong! He stayed up the entire ride. I, on the other hand, doze off for few minutes here and there.

The trip was a success. Damon had a blast, we made it back safe, and spent little money. Damon is already asking when we are going back.

Last day of school!!!

Today was Damon's last day of school however he will still be going to his school during the summer for summer camp so technically he will still be at school but there won't be an educational curriculum to follow.

Anyway, for the last day his class had an ice cream social. Damon signed me up to bring: cool whip, cherries, chocolate chips, gummy bears, and caramel syrup...thank you son. :) So I arrive to his school at 3:00 for the social and helped the teachers scoop the ice cream and put toppings on.

They had a Hawaiian theme and all of the kids had grass skirts and lei's on. I topped Damon off with a Hawaiian straw hat.

At the end of the social the teachers made a beautiful speech about how much they loved and enjoyed our kids. Each student received a sand bucket, shovel, goggles, and candy inside with a handmade t-shirt. It almost brought a tear to my eye until I remembered he'll still be with those teachers through the summer...so we had time.

IHOP

This morning after the kids woke up from their sleep over, which they were so good by the way, we decided to take them to IHOP to have some delicious pancakes.

Damon decided to get mini pancakes, eggs, and bacon. He ate pretty good. I'm not the biggest fan of breakfast foods so I got a strawberry crepe and hash browns. I know, not the healthiest choice but who goes to IHOP to eat healthy?

The kids enjoyed their time together but after breakfast it was time to go home.

Thank you Kat and Riley for a wonderful time!